A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust: International Art Trade Bibliography

Bibliography: International Art Trade

1. Bator, Paul M. The international trade in art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. vii, 108 pp.
Note: This work on the illegal art trade notes in its description of the regulation of the international movement of stolen art treasures and discusses a number of import prohibitions, as well as the responsibility of museums to restrict the acquisition of illegally exported art.
2. Burnham, Bonnie. Art theft, its scope, its impact, its control. New York: International Foundation for Art Research, 1978. 205 pp.
3. De Visscher, Charles. International protection of works of art and historic monuments. International Information and Cultural Series 8. Washington: State Department, 1949. [50 pp.] (Reprinted from Documents and State Papers of June 1949).
Note: These essays by Belgian jurist Charles De Visscher, based upon the well-established thesis that the protection and preservation of cultural resources is an international responsibility, offer the reader not only an excellent review of plunder through history, but also a point of departure in future planning efforts to safeguard cultural achievements of all countries through international efforts.
4. Decker, Andrew and Mariana Schroeder. "Blocking the black market." ARTnews 94, no.4(April 1995): 46.
Note: Black market activity in artwork may lessen as a result of a NYC court ruling calling for the return of three stolen drawings to Germany. The artwork had been captured by Russians at the end of WWII and later stolen from a Russian museum.
5. Dobrzynski, Judith H. "A bulldog on the heels of lost Nazi loot." New York Times(November 4, 1997).
Note: In this interview with Hector Feliciano, a Puerto Rican journalist who lived for years in Paris and wrote The Lost Museum, the Nazi conspiracy to steal the world's greatest works of art, Feliciano reflects on the fact that wars seem to make people go berserk. Feliciano, whose book has proven to be extremely valuable to those who track stolen art, is now writing a sequel.
6. Dobrzynski, Judith H. "Capitol Hill looks at issue of art stolen in wartime." New York Times(February 15, 1998).
Note: Still interested in the Holocaust, Congress turned its direction away from gold, bank accounts, and insurance to look at looted art.
7. Duboff, Leonard D. and Mary Ann Crawford Duboff. "The protection of artistic national patrimony against pillaging and theft in law and the visual arts." In Law and the Visual Arts Conference. Portland, OR: Northwestern School of Law, 1974.
8. Ebeling, Ashlea. "Hey, that's my picture on your wall." Forbes 258, no.1(December 14, 1998).
Note: Article on how defective title insurance coverage protects art owners when there are ownership disputes.
9. Freudenheim, Tom L. "Will everything become suspect?." ARTnews 97, no.3(March 1998): 100.
Note: Art institutions and governments both have failed to resolve the art theft problems dating from WWII. Now authorities and curators are urged to address the issues legally and ethically.
10. Jore, Karen S. "The illicit movement of art and artifact: how long will the art market continue to benefit from the ineffectual laws governing cultural property." Brooklyn Journal of International Law 13(1987): 55-81.
Note: Call for stronger laws regarding cultural property.
11. "Jurisdictional Issues in the International Movement of Cultural Property: Symposium." Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce 10(1983): 281-351.
Note: Legal issues regarding the international art displacement.
12. Kouroupas, Maria Papageorge. "U.S. efforts to protect cultural property: implementation of the 1970 UNESCO convention." African Arts 28, no.4(Autumn 1995): 32+.
Note: The 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property established a framework of international cooperation in the effort to prevent movement of archaeological and cultural property across international boundaries.
13. LeBor, Adam. "The last Nazi art scandal." Independent(November 18, 1998).
Note: The fact that governments are finally taking action to address the fact that many art collections belonging to Jews were looted by the Nazis before and during WWII will be looked at by the Conference on Holocaust Era Assets participants to be held in Washington. Countries have made commitments to identifying looted art in databases in order to ensure the art's return.
14. "Legal Aspects of the International Traffic in Stolen Art: Symposium." Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce 4(1976): 51-95.
15. Merryman, John Henry. "The protection of artistic national patrimony against pillaging and theft." In Law and the visual arts, 153-172. Portland, OR: Leonard D. DuBoff and Northwestern School of Law, Lewis & Clark College, 1974.
Note: The author writes about the legal issues related to the international traffic in stolen and illegally exported works of artistic and cultural importance.
16. Nahlik, E. Stanislaw. "International law and the protection of cultural property in armed conflicts." Hasting Law Journal 27(May 1976): 1069-1087.
17. Plagens, Peter. "The spoils of war: pictures looted by Nazis hang in top museums.." Newsweek 131, no.13(March 30, 1998): 60+.
Note: Claims by heirs for artwork looted from Holocaust victims are disturbing the art world because many of the works have found their way to major museums. As lawsuits increase, museums wrestle with the legal and moral issues involved.
18. Robinson, Walter V. "Museums' stance on Nazi loot belies their role in a key case." Boston Globe(February 13, 1998): A1.
Note: Major American museums promised to facilitate the return of any artwork plundered from European Jews during WWII, at the same time they are joining a legal battle to protect trade in antiquities illegally exported from countries with archeological sites. The movement toward creating liability for people who handle stolen art.
Filed in Library at R16.
19. Robinson, Walter V. "An ignominious legacy: evidence grows of plundered art in US." Boston Globe(April 25, 1997): A1.
Note: This article points out that many people who purchase art do not do a search about its authenticity or its possibility of having been stolen.
Article is filed in the NARA Library at R24.
Online: http://www.museum-security.org/lootedart.html.
20. Schwartz, A. "Arresting the flow of stolen art." Asian Art & Culture 9, no.1(1996): 12-21.
Note: The author discusses UNIDROIT and its role in the art theft business which is the third largest illicit business in the world.
21. Watson, Peter. Sotheby's: the inside story. New York: Random House, 1997. vii, 324 pp.
Note: An investigation into how art objects of great historical, economic, and sometimes religious, value found their way to the Sotheby's auctions.
22. Williams, Sharon A. The international and national protection of movable cultural property: a comparative study. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1978. xvii, 302 pp.

Source: This page retrieved from the National Archives and Records Administration.
http://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/bibliographies/international-art-trade.html

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A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
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